Birds of a Feather|Neo'anar, New Anarlina

[Kender Bard]

Byron eyed Zira but not without a touch of nervousness now that the man was towering above him and clearly angry. "Fine," was Byron's only retort. "Don't say I didn't warn you." And he turned and left Zira quickly, making a point to slither past Morrigan as he did, bending to murmur something to the back of her head, and moving on before she could do more than stiffen. She cast a glance at his retreating back and then at Zira with something close to despair or sorrowful resignation. She returned to Zira.

"I see that Byron's jealousy spurred him to give one last parting jab," she replied lightly. "I see you're upset; over him or over me for not being open with you?"

[Darastrix]

Zira breathed out a sigh and made himself relax, though seeing Byron whisper to Morrigan and her expression when she'd looked at him had just added fuel to the fire. "Him," he replied, shooting a glare in the direction Byron had taken.

He took another deep breath and looked back to Morrigan. "Morrigan, whatever you haven't been open about is your business, not mine. I'm angry that he tried to take it upon himself to tell me something he believed to be damaging under the guise of being helpful." Zira frowned. "It's the kind of thing some courtiers play at, and I don't like it. I didn't give him the chance to be specific, so if you want to keep it private, I understand. It's your right."

[Kender Bard]

"Oh," Morrigan replied, clearly relieved. "Good. Good. Well, I think he's gone now and good riddance. Why don't you and I take to the road too?"

[Darastrix]

"I think that would be best," Zira replied. "I think he's gone, but if I have to listen to him one more time, I'm afraid I might finally lose my temper."

[Kender Bard]

"I'm sure that it would be a sight to see," Morrigan remarked, arching a brow.

Outside where it was quieter and cooler, she led the way back to the farmhouse, walking in companiable silence. Abruptly, she detoured once they drew near the edge of the farm territory. "Come, stand with me here." She'd found a bare patch of grass in the full moonlight and stood there, hands clasped and her face shadowed from her raised hood. "Zira, I consider you quite possibly my best friend. And I hope that I am right to believe that feel a warm affection of friendship for me too. So would it be correct to assume that you would not turn away from that friendship lightly?"

[Darastrix]

"Of course I wouldn't," Zira said with firm confidence. "I don't treat any of my friends lightly." He hadn't a clue what kind of 'deformity' Byron had been speaking of, but why in the world would he shun someone for something like that? It wasn't as though one could help how they had been born.

[Kender Bard]

"Then I don't wish to carry on a friendship out of concern that you will turn away, now that you are at least aware that I'm hiding something," Morrigan concluded. "Come here. Look at the back of my neck."

She reached back and swept her long blonde hair off of her neck, turning so that the light fell upon her skin and not shadows. There was a brown-green coloration on her neck; her Earth sign. Starting near the base of her head and slicing at a downward angle to disappear beneath the neckline of her robe and hood was a white line of scar tissue. It sliced neatly through her Earth sign.

"I am signless," she confessed in a small voice. "Half dead."

[Darastrix]

Zira winced when he saw the scar. Aside from looking like it must have been painful when it happened, he couldn't imagine losing one of his signs. Not being able to feel his bond with Ria, no longer being aware of the faint buzz of thought and emotion when he was around people.... It must have been a terrible loss.

"What happened?" he murmured softly.

[Kender Bard]

Morrigan reached back and rubbed her hand over the sign, now that she didn't have to repress that tick anymore. "When Contrasta began to sink, there was more than just flooding; there were many powerful earthquakes as well. I was in the barn when one struck and it was the last one the old place could take. It collapsed. Miraculously, I escaped most of the harm but I was trapped under a heavy, splintered beam. My mother and my sister didn't have time to use their signs to move it off of me. There were still small tremors going and they were terrified that the rubble would shift and crush me to death. So they just grabbed hold and dragged it off. The sharp wood sliced down my neck and over my sign."

She gazed blankly while recounting the story and her voice grew a bit strangled at the last bit. Her fingers resting over her sign spasmed with remembered pain.

"A number of people told me it would have been kinder to risk a complete death in an effort to save my sign than to have done what they did," Morrigan concluded. "It was the final act that drove me to Taed. They say..." She tilted her head up and sounded wistful. "They say that you're made whole after death. When my time finally comes, I believe my sign will be restored to me."

[Darastrix]

Zira wasn't sure what need anyone might actually have of their sign beyond the Veil, but he certainly wasn't going to discourage an idea like that. Especially not one that brought someone comfort. But what she said that other people told her was appalling. How could someone think that?

"I'm sorry. I can't even imagine what that must have been like. Still...if I had to choose," he murmured, "between saving my own life at the cost of a sign and saving my sign at the cost of my life, I'd take the former."

[Kender Bard]

"You say that, but if you had to live with it, I don't think you'd agree," Morrigan replied. "But then, as you said, it's hard to imagine what it's like. A lot of people think it's like having a limb cut off. But that's not true."

She covered the scar with her hair again, smoothing her fingers down over the spot one more time. "It's like living without any blood in your veins. Something is lost, but it's something on so deep and fundamental level of a level that you really don't feel whole. I used to be able to hear the plants and trees around me whispering to me in their wordless language. Then after the accident, that was the second thing that struck me. How silent the world is. On top of not being able to feel my connection to the earth, I felt like a completely foreign creature. Like I didn't belong. But, in time, the feeling faded." Mostly.

She gave Zira a somber, serious look. "It is not something I tell people anymore. They act differently. They treat me differently. But I do not want a friendship on false pretenses, however sweet they may be. I would not want to be friends with someone who could not accept me, the-" her mouth quirked "-whole of me." She swallowed hard. "And I don't think you will. Because you are a good man, Zira, and I trust you."

[Darastrix]

"Morrigan," Zira said, "you are the same person you were when I met you, the same person I became friends with. The only thing that will change is that if you have days when that loss particularly bothers you, as some losses do, you can express yourself freely to me."

[Kender Bard]

Morrigan threw her arms around Zira in an almost violent, fierce hug. "Thank you," she breathed out, struggling with all her might to not cry in relief. "I knew I could trust you, Zira."

She regained her composure quickly and in a more normal voice, added, "I'm sorry if I spoiled the night for you with my sad tale. It was not my intent."

[Darastrix]

"Nothing is spoiled," Zira assured her as he returned the embrace. "When you're ready, we can get back on our way and you can introduce me to your family."

[Kender Bard]

"I'm ready now," Morrigan replied, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Nothing is sweeter for the soul in pain than the warm embrace of family. And pie." She grinned shakily at her joke and turned to head down the path to the farmhouse again with him.

Her knock at the door was greeted very quickly by a tall and robust woman. "Morri!" she cried out and embraced her daughter. Morrigan smiled and hugged her back. "Morri, who is this tall gentleman with you?"

"Mother, this is my friend, Zira," Morrigan introduced. "Zira, this is my mother, Charlotte."